Portable device for viewing and imaging

Abstract

A portable searchlight with a focused beam operating both in the infrared and visible portions of the spectrum with a range of approximately 400 meters includes telescopic lens system integrated with an illumination system. The beam of the searchlight and the telescopic lens are automatically aligned to both focus on the distant object. The telescopic lens system is combined with a digital camera system and an LCD display. The searchlight includes an eyepiece lens enabling an user to choose either viewing a display screen or using the eyepiece lens to optically observe the field of view.

1 . A portable hand-held device for low-light viewing, comprising:
 a body enclosed by a housing;   a source of illumination within the body, and a filter for blocking wavelengths of light up to infrared wavelengths, mounted on the housing forward of the source of illumination, wherein the source of illumination is effective to illuminate a scene at a range of about 400 meters and farther;   a lens assembly, comprising an objective lens, a collimating lens, and a focusing lens, mounted on the housing for receiving and focusing at least infrared illumination from the scene;   a charge coupled device positioned within the body to receive the illumination focused by the lens assembly and for providing monochrome output image data indicative of the focused infrared illumination;   signal processing circuitry within the body for receiving the image data and providing an output video signal and for variable electronic magnification of the image displayed on the display;   a swivel-mounted LCD display, mounted on the housing, for receiving the video signal and displaying an image;   and a video output on the housing for outputting the video signal.